Titans release RB DeMarco Murray

[titans0021]

12 minutes ago, Kiwibrown said:

How would he go as a short yardage back? 

I wonder if he has a year left on him as a role player.

Honestly think his only role left is a third-down back. He still has good hands out of the backfield and in general he's a pretty smart back with good blocking instincts. Obviously the problem with that is that most people tend to think of third-down backs as quicker, shiftier guys that can create after the catch.

Bad option as a power/short yardage back though. Just doesn't run with much power and struggled to hit holes this year, even when they were pretty open.

[atown703]

he's not the same player he used to be but i'm sure he will catch on somewhere

[Dashing202]

20 minutes ago, atown703 said:

he's not the same player he used to be but i'm sure he will catch on somewhere

I disagree , he was one year removed from a 1200 yard season. Had Henry not been around he would of finished 1000 yards .

He won't be the cowboys Murray but he's still a fairly good back . 

 

[Kiwibrown]

51 minutes ago, titans0021 said:

Honestly think his only role left is a third-down back. He still has good hands out of the backfield and in general he's a pretty smart back with good blocking instincts. Obviously the problem with that is that most people tend to think of third-down backs as quicker, shiftier guys that can create after the catch.

Bad option as a power/short yardage back though. Just doesn't run with much power and struggled to hit holes this year, even when they were pretty open.

Thanks for the analysis. 

I wondee f he would consider putting on 10-15 pounds and just slamming holes.

i could understand if he didn’t want to though. 

[titans0021]

59 minutes ago, Dashing202 said:

I disagree , he was one year removed from a 1200 yard season. Had Henry not been around he would of finished 1000 yards .

He won't be the cowboys Murray but he's still a fairly good back . 

 

I mean, he has 287 yards on 78 carries in the second half of last season. That's under 3.7 yards per attempt. Even in his 1,200 yard season, the numbers faded down the stretch. Obviously not quite as glaring as this year, but he had 756 yards with a 4.73 average in the first half of the season and 531 yards on 3.99 per carry. Really, the only hope is that he can stay totally healthy. But he dealt with nagging injuries for the back half of 2016 and all of 2017 and it's not really a safe bet to say that the 30 year old running back with a history of injury issues and an upright running style is going to stay 100%.

51 minutes ago, Kiwibrown said:

I wondee f he would consider putting on 10-15 pounds and just slamming holes.

It might be the worst part of his game. That Steelers TNF game this year where they spent the whole game in sky cam was really eye opening. Helped your casual fan see just how many yards he was leaving on the field by completely missing holes and plowing into the backs of his linemen. He might legitimately be better off trying to shed 10-15 pounds and hope that it gives him at least a little of his burst back. 

[Dashing202]

1 hour ago, titans0021 said:

I mean, he has 287 yards on 78 carries in the second half of last season. That's under 3.7 yards per attempt. Even in his 1,200 yard season, the numbers faded down the stretch. Obviously not quite as glaring as this year, but he had 756 yards with a 4.73 average in the first half of the season and 531 yards on 3.99 per carry. Really, the only hope is that he can stay totally healthy. But he dealt with nagging injuries for the back half of 2016 and all of 2017 and it's not really a safe bet to say that the 30 year old running back with a history of injury issues and an upright running style is going to stay 100%.

It might be the worst part of his game. That Steelers TNF game this year where they spent the whole game in sky cam was really eye opening. Helped your casual fan see just how many yards he was leaving on the field by completely missing holes and plowing into the backs of his linemen. He might legitimately be better off trying to shed 10-15 pounds and hope that it gives him at least a little of his burst back. 

764 yards isn't bad considering some backs who take over 300 carries .

[Heinz D.]

5 hours ago, titans0021 said:

Seriously? He's a shell of his former self. I'll always like him for his performance his first year in Nashville, but he was terrible this past season. Absolutely brutal. Missed a ton of holes and any sort of burst he used to have is totally gone. 

You sound exactly like the Eagles fans when he was moved out of there. He had an injury plagued year, there's actually no real reason to think he's totally washed up. There's also no real reason to think Derrick Henry can be a true feature back, either. That alone should give any Titans fan pause, but let's go further--Murray's contract was not particularly odious this coming season, and the Titans have a fair amount of cap space. Releasing Murray is exactly the sort of bad decision that prevents fairly good teams from becoming better teams.

4 hours ago, RuskieTitan said:

How to show people you haven't watched football since 2016.

Contract was well designed, no dead money to make this cut. We already had $45 mil in cap space before this IIRC, though I'm sure Lewan is going to eat a chunk of that.

You bring up the cap space while praising the move. Interesting.

So...nothing to be gained by waiting to see how the Titans running game sorts itself out in camp before making the cut? Or maybe even taking the plunge and hoping Murray provides something? 

5 hours ago, renndawg37 said:

In what way? 

I think I've explained my position, but if there's still stuff you're fuzzy on, let me know.

I quoted you as you were by far the least obnoxious member to respond to my earlier post, and I wanted to give you a shout out. 

[Sugashane]

I was a huge Henry fan prior to his Heisman campaign, happy to see him get the chance to be a bellcow back now.

[DingoLadd]

This annoys me for fantasy purposes, right move from a personnel stand point but I'd add another back to pair with Henry in the draft or a 3rd down back via FA to complement him. 

You can never have enough solid RBs.

[Heinz D.]

3 minutes ago, DingoLadd said:

This annoys me for fantasy purposes, right move from a personnel stand point but I'd add another back to pair with Henry in the draft or a 3rd down back via FA to complement him. 

You can never have enough solid RBs.

Or...they could keep a back that's already on their team under a reasonable contract who very well could give them some production this year. Just a thought. 

[Broncofan]

As a pure outsider, I'll say this - the games I saw in the 2H with Murray, he looked sluggish, and without any burst.   The ThuNF game where they used the Madden cam, this was most evident.  Maybe it was injury-related, but at his mileage/age, the risk that the decline is real is staggering.

RB is the most replaceable position around.   If you aren't elite, don't spend the money/high pick.   TEN will no doubt draft a depth Day 3 backup to Henry, and be fine.  Murray's had a great career, but I'd venture his days as a starter are done.  I don't have a dog in this show, just outside observations.

[Broncofan]

4 minutes ago, Heinz D. said:

Or...they could keep a back that's already on their team under a reasonable contract who very well could give them some production this year. Just a thought. 

Demarco Murray's 6.5M 2018 contract would have made him the 5th highest paid RB in the NFL.  5M is the 10th highest.   It's not even close to a reasonable contract for the guy he is now.  Just a thought.

[titans0021]

1 hour ago, Dashing202 said:

764 yards isn't bad considering some backs who take over 300 carries .

Wait...where's 764 yards coming from? 

53 minutes ago, Heinz D. said:

You sound exactly like the Eagles fans when he was moved out of there. He had an injury plagued year, there's actually no real reason to think he's totally washed up. There's also no real reason to think Derrick Henry can be a true feature back, either. That alone should give any Titans fan pause, but let's go further--Murray's contract was not particularly odious this coming season, and the Titans have a fair amount of cap space. Releasing Murray is exactly the sort of bad decision that prevents fairly good teams from becoming better teams.

I honestly was concerned you were being sarcastic and that I overreacted to your first post. This past season, he averaged over four yards per carry in four of 15 games. In his last 23 games, he's averaged over four yards per carry seven times and under 3.5 14 times.  The worst running teams in football averaged 3.4 yards per attempt last season. The 19th ranked running team averaged 4.0. So, basically, over the last season and a half, you were twice as likely to get a Murray that was equivalent (or worse) to the worst rushing game in the NFL as you were to get a Murray that provided league-average production.

You don't even need to make Henry a true feature back. You can replace Murray's production with almost every single NFL caliber running back. DeMarco Murray, I believe, was on the books to be the sixth highest paid player in the league at this position. I don't care what the cap looks like, no NFL team will pay that for a guy that's had one above average stretch in the last three years. Murray is just so easily replaceable and, from a pure running style standpoint, offers nothing that Henry doesn't bring to the table. Even if Henry isn't getting 300 touches next year (and I'll be very surprised if he does), you want to find a back that offers some speed and explosiveness. Some lightning to Henry's thunder. Not an aging back with broken down legs that can't stay healthy or hit the hole any more.

[titans0021]

Nevermind.

[titans0021]

12 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

The ThuNF game where they used the Madden cam, this was most evident. 

This was my breaking point with Murray. I was willing to cut him some slack, but man, I can't really blame injuries for his absolute refusal to run towards the open space and his apparent desire to see just how many times he could get tackled by his own offensive linemen.